It’s picture perfect fair-weather in Dallas this week, but while second helpings of all things State Fair are tempting, you might start to notice it in the waistline. If you want do the fair but need to give the gut a break, here are just a few of the best…
It’s been reported that Antoine Ashley — who was known throughout the drag community as Sahara Davenport, has passed away at age 27. Davenport gained international notoriety by competing on Season Two of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and made it halfway through prior to elimination. Antoine Ashley was raised in Dallas…
Richard McKay knows his boyish face makes a statement. When we met for coffee last week, he still seemed a little shell-shocked by his very recent 30th birthday. But if he seems hyper-aware of his age, it’s probably because the artistic director and conductor of the newly formed Dallas Chamber…
Some of you troopers continued riding your bikes through the summer, despite the evil sky orb’s influence. The rest of us thin-skinned types wait around for these temperate months before rolling up one pant leg. This Saturday at Art in Motion your level of alt/transport dedication will not be judged…
We are patio addicts. They’re where we atone for Saturday night’s sins through hungover brunch confessions. We occasionally take our dogs to outdoor happy hours, just so they know the awesome stuff we do without them. And starting this Wednesday we’ll occupy one of the nicest patios in town for…
Texans have always taken pride in their whiskers, but few are more enthusiastic than our local facial hair gang Lone Star Beards. They brought our chin lock obsession center stage on Saturday night when they orchestrated Dallas’ Inaugural Beard and Mustache Competition at Texas Theatre. There were categories for every…
J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults, The Casual Vacancy, arrived in bookstores yesterday. According to advance reports, the new book contains lots of sex (in the form of “a miraculously unguarded vagina” and a used condom that is “like the gossamer cocoon of some huge grub”), domestic abuse and an…
In Ink Spot, Amy Price stops strangers in Dallas to shoot, and learn about, their body art. Hustling from bench to bench with handles of my favorite bottomless mimosas, Amber Miller, a 29-year-old server at Barcadia and make-up artist, attracted a lot of attention on a recent visit. Not just…
There have been whispers about it coming to Dallas for a while, but we’ve finally received solid confirmation that The Book of Mormon will appear as part of the 2013/2014 Broadway series at the Winspear Opera House. Dates are yet to post, but current season subscribers get priority ticket opportunities…
As a tease for DTC’s upcoming production Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, the Dallas Theater Center has released a video game on its website called Powerbomb. Kristoffer Diaz’ Pulitzer finalist play examines the lives of professional wrestlers — you know, those guys who are selected to be winning heroes or…
Since the moments after Monday night’s debacle in Seattle, we’ve been looking forward to the replacement refs — those scab referees who so woefully stepped in for the unioned pros in the NFL’s first few weeks — to get the pop-culture treatment. I was thinking an ensemble screwball comedy next…
In The Parent Crap, Alice Laussade chronicles life as a mom in Dallas. Worried you’re screwing up your kid? Tweet questions to @thecheapbastard and she’ll confirm that, yes, you’re screwing up your kid. Babies are great. They’re cute, they’re made of you, they say funny stuff — aside from the…
He’s here, everybody! He’s here! The older we get, the more we’re expected to act like grown-ups. That isn’t the case at the State Fair of Texas. Nope, it’s the perfect place to regress. Blow your cash on fried things! Look at butter sculptures! Make out in the Midway! Big…
Whoa, guys. The Chinese Lantern Festival is out of control. See also: The Chinese Lantern Festival is Coming to the State Fair and It Looks Awesome It’s like they’ve taken every emoji you’ve ever wished existed, spun it into a silk sculpture, then illuminated the thing. There are singing giant…
There are a lot of thank yous to pass out in the afterglow of last night’s “Expanded Cinema” project. Omni Hotel, thanks for allowing our local artists to get all handsy with you. KXT, thanks for broadcasting the soundtrack so we could have a complete sensory experience. And Bart Weiss,…
Every Thursday we highlight the best comedy of the coming weekend. Find more comedy events at dallasobserver.com/calendar. Collin Moulton at Hyena’s in Fort WorthA finalist in two kick-ass comedy festivals, Gilda’s Laugh Fest in Grand Rapids and The Skull Fest in Atlanta, Collin Moulton brings his comedy chops to the stage…
Is that a handgun that I see before me? It is. In Shakespeare Dallas’ just-opened production of Macbeth, the Scottish and Norwegian troops wear modern camo and fire pistols and automatic weapons. Not as visually graceful as clanging swords perhaps, but going bang-bang sure could shorten the battle scenes. If…
Early on in Rian Johnson’s time-travel thriller Looper, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) sits at a diner and chats with his self from 30 years in the future (Bruce Willis). When the younger Joe asks the older one about the specifics of temporal displacement, the latter dismisses the question, telling his interlocutor…
Casting a tapered, vase-slender silhouette and speaking in a Transylvanian accent with a touch of Borscht Belt, Hotel Transylvania’s de-fanged Count Dracula is introduced in an 1895-set prologue while serenading his infant daughter. No menacing carnivore, this Nosferatu has sworn off fatty human blood, is more scared of humans than…
“I hate realism,” director Genndy Tartakovsky said last week over the phone. “In America especially, we’re very narrow-minded as far as animation goes. There is only one kind of movie, and that’s that big, family-oriented, four-quadrant, please-everyone kind of film. But if I wanted realism, I’d watch a live-action movie…
David France on the History and Survival of ACT UP
“Death wasn’t being responded to as a public health problem,” David France says. “It was dealt with with sniggers. It was left to religious leaders to explain or respond to the epidemic. And they responded by calling it the wrath of God.” He adds: “That’s the hostility we all saw…
Growing up is fraught with so many pitfalls and tragedies and traumas that it’s a wonder any of us make it to adulthood. Add in a gender-identity issue, something wrapped up in so many aspects of sexuality and psychology and social identity, and you begin to think that it’s practically…
